There's something I just dont get.
Low power binoculars seem to have many benefits over their 8x and 10x cousins:
• less hand shake
• potentially greater FOV (Most Else Being Equal)
• better depth of field (again, MEBE)
• larger exit pupil resulting in less critical eye placement
• larger exit pupil for those who can make use of it
• may be even easier to make "good" compared to higher mags
On top of this, who hasnt heard or complained themselves that small compact binos are a huge tradeoff. There are tons of threads about it here and elswhere regarding how lousy most compacts are, relatively speaking, yet a bino in the hand beats none in the bush so we either suffer them or dont bother.
Google "compact binocular" and you come up with thousands of 8, 9, and 10x binocs in the x20, 24, 25, and x28 range.
To me, its maddening.
Where are all of the compact 6x binocs? 6.5?
Heck, while I am at it, where are all of the 5x20 compacts? 6x24's?
Before you jump in an remind me of the exceptionally popular mid-sized viper 6x32, yosemite 6x32, and larger Zed 7x36... Think about why they are popular- great glass at their respective price points coupled with the benefit of lower mag. Why not take this concept down to the next size-category?
With so many bino's on the market now, and China seemingly cranking them out [insert pithy metaphore here], you'd think someone would meet what I think is a market demand.
Why is it a rarity to find a really small 6 or 6.5x, let alone a 5 or 5.5x ?
The trouble with compacts is that most have a very restricted FOV. The only exceptions I know of are the Opticron DBA Oasis 8x21 and a similar model from Kite with a FOV of 131 m @ 1000 m but the weight is 340 g, approximately 100 g more than competitors of the same configuration.
Large FOVs require large prisms and the lower the magnification, the larger the prisms have to be to maintain the AFOV resulting in an additional weight penalty.
An illustrative example in another dimension is the Leica 50 mm Ultravid HD series with a very low weight of 1000 g. The 12x50 has a FOV of 100 m (excellent), the 10x50 has 117 m (still excellent) but the 8x50 also has 117 m (somewhat restricted).
John
I second the OP and request lower-mag compacts.
The semi-compact Bushnell Excursion 8x28 has a 139m/1000m FOV which is remarkable for such a compact bin.
It would have been even more thrilling as a 7x28 with a 155m FOV, or a 6x28 with a 170m FOV.
The Ultravid 6x24 definitely has no large prisms. It has a FOV of 212m.